Making the Maker Movement Accessible
From: Product Design & Development - 07/07/2015

3D printing is often lauded for its ability to create assistive technologies
for those who are differently-abled.

But when Amy Hurst, an assistant professor in the Information Systems
Department at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC), went
looking for evidence of a groundswell of people using computer-aided design
and 3-D printing to create assistive technologies, she came up short.

In 2015, she and her collaborators published the results of a study of
Thingiverse, one of the most popular online repositories of 3-D designs for
the maker community. She found that less than 1 percent, or 350 of the
designs on the site, were for assistive technologies.

Read the entire article at:
http://www.pddnet.com/news/2015/07/making-maker-movement-accessible

Links:
Iron Man Arm
http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/speaking-of-science/wp/2014/10/20/this-3-d-printed-iron-man-prosthetic-will-make-kids-feel-super/

Amy Hurst
http://amyhurst.com/

Thingiverse
https://www.thingiverse.com/

Assistive Technology Designs on Thingiverse
http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=2702525

3D printing for Accessibility
http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=2661345

Opportunities and obstacles to 3D printing in special education environments
http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=2661365

Empowering individuals with do-it-yourself assistive technology
http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=2049541